Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville "Jinky Bitrics" Luistro doesn't buy the narrative that British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman was fired as Rodrigo Duterte's lead counsel in connection with the former Philippine president's International Criminal Court (ICC) case.

Instead, Luistro, chairperson of the House Committee on Justice, said she felt a measure of "frustration" from Kaufman that may have led to his exit from Team Duterte.

"Wala naman sinabing fired out siya. May sinabi ba? (Nobody was said about him being fired. What that even said?)” she said when asked if the lawyer may have lost the confidence of the Duterte camp.

"The report was simply he’s withdrawing as lead counsel. I think we should not go beyond that,” said Luistro, herself a lawyer.

On late Friday night (Philippine time), it was reported that Kaufman had formally requested permission to withdraw from the former leader’s legal team as the crimes against humanity case moves closer to trial.

In a filing dated May 8, Kaufman said his engagement as Duterte’s counsel “terminated on 31 March 2026.”

“Yesterday, the Defence team visited Mr. Duterte and documented both Mr. Duterte’s release of Counsel from his representation and his desire to hire replacement Counsel,” the filing stated.

Kaufman said a replacement lawyer, whose identity was redacted in the public document, had already agreed to immediately assume representation and attend the status conference scheduled on May 27.

Luistro said she believes Kaufman may have become frustrated after repeated legal efforts questioning the ICC’s jurisdiction were consistently rejected.

“So in plain view, ang interpretation ko lang po dyan, hindi na siya fulfilled standing as the lead counsel of the former President. Perhaps the reason is, sa dami po ng attempts nila to question the jurisdiction of the [ICC], e palagi naman po itong nadi-deny,” she said.

(So in plain view, my interpretation of that is, he is no longer fulfilled in standing as the lead counsel of the former President. Perhaps the reason is, with the many attempts they made to question the jurisdiction of the ICC, these were always denied.)

Luistro also declined to speculate their not Duterte--after over a year of incarceration at The Hague--was waiving the proverbial white flag when it comes to his ICC case which resulted from his administration’s bloody war on illegal drugs.

“I don’t know really how you are going to interpret that. It’s not for us to comment on that. Perhaps it’s better to ask the Duterte family,” she said.

But what's beyond contestation is the fact that it was Kaufman who

"The decision came from Atty. Kaufman, not from the Duterte family. We’ve heard it, siya ‘yung nag-withdraw (he's the one who withdraw),” she pointed out.